Week 11: WOOOOSH!
Week 11: WOOOOSH! Freestone: 5/22 - 5/23 AS 950 - 951 When we left off... Gundren and Sildar finally returned with the location of Wave Echo Cave. They wanted to engage the party to go through and clear out whatever's inside it... and they assumed that would include the mysterious organizer of the Cragmaw Goblins. Sir Quintus and Ulfar quickly brought the members of the Lord's Alliance up to speed on the Black Spider, and the Cragmaw ties to Iarno, the Redbrands, and the alleged slave ring. Sildar was not amused at having been kept out of the loop on these developments for so long, but you were their first best options to re-take the cave... especially now that they had a better idea of what kind of conspiracy they were dealing with. When Selgaard and Clyde took an interest in how they would be repaid for rendering this aid, Gundren reminded you all that he'd offered a percentage of the mine's profits. Since nobody really seemed to grasp how that worked, he spelled it out for like the fourth damn time: you gain a percentage of the mine's money as a part owner, with a claim to 5-10% of whatever they find. You do not have to retire and work in the mine to make money, OMFG. #Facepalm After traveling a little more than half a day through some marshy forest, the group arrived back at the edge of the Deep Wood. The hour grew late, though, so you all agreed to sleep above ground before venturing into the cavern. Clyde found a secluded and secure camp site, but Ulfar and Quintus were plagued by strange dreams of a lady who might once have been Agatha the Banshee. She warned them to take care where they lay their heads at night. At dawn, your exploration began. WOOSH! In the entrance, three bugbears were impaled on stalactites with the word "SLAVER" spelled out in big, bloody letters. Using a rope, Ulfar led the way down a small escarpment and scouted ahead, where he saw a large number of skeletons on the floor. Being paranoid, he immediately called for Selgaard to look for undead. The Dragonborn couldn't sense anything, so Ulfar made a tentative move forward... Too bad the skeletons were just dead bodies and the cavern was full of stirges. WOOSH! The sound of the cave shook the stones on the ground and rattled your bones, every two minutes or so. WOOSH. Except when Ray forgot. But then WOOSH again! The group slowly cleared a number of rooms, including the barracks and assayer's office. In what might once have been a dormitory, you encountered a pack of ghouls picking clean a pile of relatively recent bones. Those ghouls, and many more, were defeated. Especially after you lit a fire and filled the surrounding caverns with the smell of cooking meat. WOOSH! Though a long maze of old mine shafts infested by an ocher jelly, you arrived in a wet, natural cavern that looked like something out of Moria. Nobody was brave enough to wade in. But, after clearing some of the wilder areas of the cave, Ulfar found the barracks of the remaining bugbears. Unfortunately, Quintus opened the door and also found their javelins with his face. WOOSH! Selgaard rushed in and was quickly surrounded, but a bad situation got better when his allies rallied and dropped two of the nasty goblins in a split second. The bugbears had barricaded one side of their quarters, which the group left in place. WOOSH! Around a nearby corner, you spied a Drow female overseeing some kind of work. Clyde cast a pass without a trace spell, and the entire party snuck up to assassinate that bitch. She didn't hit the ground immediately, but it was pretty close. The bugbears digging in the ravine below dropped their shovels to fight you, but they too were slain. Quintus, in particular, did some amazing flips and shit. WOOSH! Ulfar searched the bugbear dig site a little, but didn't find anything. Then, he scouted the next area and saw another drow, in a chapel with four spiders. Everyone was bloodied and just about out of tricks, so you elected to go back to the barricaded bugbear quarters and rest. Tomorrow is another day. WOOSH. Around Town WOOSH!